Faust Park

Chick-Fil-A, Faust Park playground and St. Louis Carousel, a fun day with friends......summer fun.

Saddle Ridge Ranch

Vacation Bible School is here!! Saddle Ridge Ranch is the place to be this week. I have the privilege of teaching a PreK class this year with the help of my friends Ryan and Cheryl and Cheryl's son Chaz. It is a total team effort! "Need Answers, Ask God" is our motto and the kids are enjoying some crafts, snacks and recreation. The pictures are of our classroom where we teach the Bible story and do some fun activities. A petting zoo is even on the schedule for tonight! Sharing the love of Jesus, Yee Haw!!!

Home Sweet Home

We left Myrtle Beach and drove to Knoxville, TN where we stayed the night to break up our long drive home. The rest of the drive home went fine, just hitting rush hour traffic as we pulled into St. Louis. The kids did great on the way home as well. Anna had reached her limit in the car just as we were pulling into St. Louis. I noticed the squirming in her seat, whining over every little thing and knew she was "done". She was able to close her eyes and sleep until we made it home. We came home to this nice little "Welcome Home" on our message board that my brother, Mike, had done. I have to say thanks to Mike and Amber for checking on the house and getting our mail while we were gone. Hopefully, next time they will be joining us on the trip. Now, it is back to reality and our everyday lives.

An Extra Day

Our family vacation had to come to an end unfortunately. Mom and Dad had to get back to get ready for their church picnic and Kim had to get back to work. Matt and I and the kids were able to stay an extra day at the beach and have a little more fun. We looked for seashells and of course played some more in the water and sand. We went out for dinner at "The Sea Captain's House" which I would highly recommend. While we were waiting for our table, we enjoyed their outdoor space. It was a great place to get some pictures, as you can see. It was right on the beach, with rocks and palmetto trees. It was a great way to end the day!

More Pics of Our Fun

I have so many wonderful pictures from our vacation and I obviously can't put them all on here, but I just had to share a few more. Did I mention that we had a great time?

Family Vacation (Part 3)

We made it!!! The Seaside in North Myrtle Beach, SC would be our home for a few days. We were all looking forward to relaxing at the beach, playing in the water and the sand, and eating some good seafood. And that is exactly what we did! This was actually the first time that my Dad had seen the ocean so we were just as excited for him as we were for Brandon and Anna (their first time at the ocean as well). They were not disappointed. Brandon loved jumping the waves and building lakes in the sand. Anna happily carried buckets of water from the ocean to pour into those lakes. Although, she would call them her hot tubs! We all worked on our tan and some succeeded a little too much! We just had the best time being together!

On The Road Again

Three separate cars all heading to the same place. Our trip to Myrtle Beach from Kim's was pretty uneventful, just a couple stops to use the potty or get gas. That is until we were about 30 minutes away. A light lit up on our dash telling us that we had a tire that was low so Matt pulled over to check out the situation. You could hear the air pouring out of the tire due to a screw that punctured the tire! Great. So, Matt and Dad got to work changing the tire without any major problems. The spare tire was on, but it was also low on air. Thankfully, we could still drive on it for a few miles to get it pumped all the way up. We were on the road again!

I will go ahead and tell you the rest of this now funny story. Matt went to get the tire patched when we were in Myrtle Beach. But, after the tire was fixed and on, the low pressure light was still on in the car. It turns out, we had another tire with a screw in it! What are the chances of that? The guy at the tire shop gave Matt a deal on the second tire cause he felt sorry for him. We will take it. I am not done yet though. When Mom and Dad got home from the trip, they came out the next morning to a FLAT TIRE!!! Crazy huh?

Greenville, SC

Kim showed us a few sights while we were in Greenville. The city has a great downtown area! We saw Falls Park which has an amazing waterfall and lots of areas to relax or play. We all enjoyed some ice cream from Spill The Beans (a coffee shop/ice cream place), but Brandon ended up getting the biggest cone and ate every bit of it!! It was so good! We all enjoyed taking part in finding the "Mice on Main". A Greenville high school student came up with this idea of placing mice along Main Street as part of a project. There is now a book called "Mice on Main" and little brass mice placed in certain spots along the storefronts. There are clues to help you find all the mice. So, while taking in some stores downtown, we all went on this hunt to find the mice. It was so much fun and the kids loved it!! Thanks Kim for getting the book for the kids. We have read it several times already. One regret I have is that I didn't get more pictures of downtown Greenville. Thanks Kim for a great time at your home and showing us your city!! We all packed up and headed to our next destination, Myrtle Beach.

Caught You Papa!

While the kids were riding their scooters at Kim's house, we caught Papa getting in on the action! I just had to get it on the blog.

Family Vacation 2010 (Part 2)

The next leg of our trip was not quite as long. We had 3 hours to go to make it to Greenville, SC where we would be staying with my cousin, Kim, for a couple days. She so graciously opened up her home to not only us, but to Nana and Papa as well. We had the best time just being all together at her house, relaxing and talking, seeing downtown Greenville, visiting John and Janice Tyler's house (John is Kim's boss and they are like her family), and eating some great food prepared by our very own master chefs Daddy and Papa!

Kim has the cutest house!! She accomodated all of us perfectly. Anna absolutely loved Kim's cat, Oreo! The kids had space to ride their scooters and her outside porch was the perfect place to hang out (or do legos if you are Brandon).

Family Vacation 2010 (Part 1)

We took off for the first leg of our trip on June 3, and planned to make it to Knoxville, TN which is about 9 hours away. This is the first long road trip that we have taken as a family and we weren't real sure how the kids would do. We were prepared with movies, music, leapsters, books, snacks, pillows and just the excitement of being on vacation! Let's just say that the kids did Awesome! and we only had to stop two times! We made it to our hotel and finished the night with pizza by the pool. Not a bad way to start the trip, but the best is yet to come....

One Year Down

Yesterday was Brandon's last day of kindergarten. Where did the time go? Wasn't I just watching him go to school on the bus for his first day? He had a great kindergarten year with Mrs. Kern and learned lots of new things and made some new friends. Looking back, I can see how much he has grown (physically, socially, and developmentally) and I can't wait to see what the future holds for him. I treated him to his favorite slush at QT and he got a tootsie roll from the car wash. Can't beat that! Look out summer, cause we are ready to do some fun stuff!